Utopian Dreams ( MCU SI Iron man Self Insert)
by techtariq
Summary: An extremely intelligent sociopath dies and re-incarnates as Tony Stark in the MCU. Trying to build an utopia without some morally grey actions is impossible. He leaves no stone unturned for power. Will the universe pay the price of his actions? Gradual Escalation to OP levels Tony Stark. Self Insert SI
1. Transmigration

Transmigration

"It was a beautiful night" he thought looking at the stars.

Based on the location of bullet holes and accounting for the blood loss he had suffered he put his time among the living at 10 minutes give or take a few seconds. He laughed realizing that even in the face of death he was analytical instead of emotional. He remembered people around him drifting away due to his inherent nature of weighing everything logically,well it may also be due to his untimely sexual innuendo that never stopped. He found it really funny to make people uncomfortable. Telling dick jokes while killing people was funny. They were unnerved by him,thought him to be a monster, a psychopath. He was flattered. He was at best a sociopath who shut his emotions behind a lock and threw away the key.

Breathing deeply,he slowly tried to prop himself up barely avoiding slipping on all the blood around and rested his back on the building. His fingers were barely responding. It took a couple tries to get the cigarettes out of his pocket and light it up. He breathed in deeply and immediately coughed up blood.

He felt nostalgic, all those years wondering how his end would be only to end up on a battlefield almost dead, knee deep in the blood of his enemies. Marcus was right,you cannot escape the darkness. Dying of old age in a peaceful manner surrounded by family was a beautiful death he did not deserve. The balance always comes due.

He spent his whole life shaping things up to his liking,manipulating people he didn't want to kill and sending others to an early grave if it was the optimal solution. They called him the boogeyman in hushed whispers behind his back. People were scared because it was an anathema to them. How could someone so carefree be so dangerous. A kill count numbering into hundreds. People he had personally sent to the big guy upstairs. Well killing was easy for him. Well it may have been easier on his conscience that he majorly only hunted

Huh he was reminiscing again. There was no coming back from this. His old age and the lack of medical facilities in a 10km radius assured it. He was no longer young and angry enough with the will to survive. Time had blunted his sharp mind and body.

Taking another deep puff of the cigarette,he closed his eyes and waited for his death,there was no other alternative based on his estimations.

"It is shocking to see you give up John, the man who successfully toppled entire governments , dying like a rabid criminal on the streets."

John opened his eyes to look at the newcomer. A three piece immaculate black suit, hair neatly pulled back into a small ponytail, hollow cheekbones and sunken eyes. There was a primal intelligence lurking behind those eyes hidden by an indifferent facade and relaxed stance.

"Occupational Hazards I'm afraid" was his reply and he tried to give the shrug but all that came out was a pained grimace. Great. Damaged Ligaments and torn tendons. More to add up to his list of problems.

The newcomer looked at him in shock for a moment and put his head back and laughed heartily.

"Only you John. Only you. People tend to get sentimental and wish for second chances near death you know?" He said gesturing vaguely around and smiling dangerously.

It was John's turn to laugh. "We both know it would turn out the same way exactly. Emotions are something I can emulate to deal with people and form baseline estimations for their reasons behind their actions. My actions based on virtual scenarios i play out in my mind taking the most optimal path based on the variables involved. I barely feel anything. I have based my decisions on rationality my whole life. Please do not insult my intelligence by assuming that I would aim for such mediocrity. I can already assume you are not human. So tell me who are you?"

"Wonderful,you can already tell I'm not human?. How so?" he asked rubbing his non existent beard in an extremely fake manner.

John rolled his eyes and answered."Well you never blinked an eye looking at the carnage around you, you casually ignore the forty three dead bodies I left behind. The first thing you refer to around is second chances. So many deviations from the norm. You tell me?" in a totally deadpan manner

"Touche" the stranger replied looking around curiously. "You know you are one of the few souls in the multiverse with such extreme potential that I have only seen a couple times since the beginning of time itself. It is a pity you had to exist in a universe that cripples your potential to such an extent". Idly toying with the head of a dead man with his leg he looked up at John smiling eagerly and said "I'm bored you know. Time for a trip john"

John looked at the stranger tiredly. It was not the kind of tiredness that sleep could do away with,the kind of tiredness when you soul was weary,where deep in you there is a kind of pain that time cannot heal nor love do away with. "Please. Just no." He sounded so fragile and weak,begging did not suit a man of his temperament but it came close. "I had enough for a lifetime. I have earned my rest. Let me be." he pleaded on the last dregs of his life with his breathing extremely shallow.

He looked at john with pitying eyes and told him."What awaits you is hardly good John" He told stepping closer to him and got down on one knee till he was facing him." A few years of good deeds do not outweigh a lifetime of crime and indiscriminate murder".

John smiled painfully and said "The balance had to come due I guess" he looked to the sky for a few moments . Then looked back firmly and said "No rest for the weary huh?. Do it"

The stranger looked at him with sadness and leaned forward closing his eyes,he kept a hand on john's shoulder. John looked at him,wavered for a few seconds and exhaled heavily for the last time.

He closed John's eyes and stood up and started walking away footsteps echoing loudly in the dark isolated alley.

"See you on the other side John".


	2. Birth

John felt that he was stuck in some kind of gelatinous matrix ,incapable of moving. Even the feedback associated with having a functional body seemed to be missing. All he was capable of was a few rational thoughts and that too was stretching it. Any attempt at a complex analysis seemed to just send mind into an overdrive that lead to fatigue and him falling asleep.

Time had lost meaning. Eventually he was being pushed from all sides. It felt really weird and uncomfortable. All he wanted was to just sleep blissfully. Suddenly everything exploded around him in a cacophony of noises and holy shit,it felt like something was clogging his airways. He cried indignantly and coughed repeatedly. Mucus bubbles came out of his nose and by god he hated how how he was feeling. He was wiped with some towels and passed to some sort of giant it seemed. The giant came close and whispered "Hello,it is me your dad, Howard. Welcome to the family. Tony. Tony Stark."

The moment John heard those words he lost his shit. Reincarnation in a fictional universe bought a whole new level of existential crisis. Being a normal squishy human in the Marvel Universe sucked. Granted, he was lucky to be born as Tony Stark. Personally he would have preferred someone on a higher power scale.

Howard foisted me off to some nurse and escaped the moment he heard me cry. God why was this happening. All those threats and dangers out there. I was way unprepared for the horrors of this galaxy. That led to another big round of shrieking and crying.

Something big began to obstruct his already blurry field of vision. Something warm and fleshy pressed against his mouth. Logic asserted itself and he realized he was being breastfed. Trying to avoid drinking didn't seem to work as his body surrendered to baser instincts and started drinking.

He was going to invent some kind of min wipe device and throw this shameful memory somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind. Gradually he started feel drowsy and fell asleep quickly.


	3. Howard Stark Interlude

Being a father was scary. He had no idea what to do with the pink bundle pressed into his hand. He was one of the best engineers in the world. He could think of a dozen different ways to optimize any given machine,very accurately predict the stocks of a dozens of different companies in different scenarios. Could think up a dozen different inventions to boost up his company's revenue but it all came crashing down when he looked at the kid in his hands.

He was scared he would not live up to his expectations. He bought the kid closely to look him over with a critical eye. Well he looked like a potato but there was some similarity to him so he could safely say that this was his kid.

He bought him closer and slowly told him "Hello it is me your dad Howard. Welcome to the family Tony, Tony Stark". Those words seemed to trigger the baby and resulted in crying. He was confused what to do. Should he stroke the kids tummy and whisper cute shit that it could not comprehend. No that was silly and Howard Stark did not do silly. Yes,he should leave it to the nurses. Patting himself mentally he quickly passed the baby to the nurse mouthing "Washroom" and displaying an apologetic expression on his face,went outside the ward.

Walking outside with his hands in his pocket he felt somber thinking about his own child. His own father was a man of few words, an intellectual in the wrong period of time and he suffered as a result. His fondest memories of his old man was learning calculus and debating the inner workings of the world with his father when he was ten years old during a camping trip.

It was one of the few moments in live he saw raw emotion peek out of his father's face. He was a child and had not understood what was going on then. His father had looked at him in such a bittersweet smile and said "Howard,The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger in the broken places. But those that it will not break it kills."

He stopped and swallowed heavily. The atmosphere was solemn with his tears gradually staining the ground amid the gentle crackling of the campfire. The shadows of the fire made his face appear really gaunt and haunted. Like he had experienced tragedies.

He breathed heavily, looked at the sky. I had been scared of what was going on and nudged him.

He looked at me again and said something I listened to then but understood it years later

"Howard,the world kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. I wish I could watch you grow old happily and shelter you from the world but it is impossible. You have an intellect that surpasses the very best I have known and both you and the world shall suffer for it"

He had kissed me on my forehead and never talked about it again. Six years later I lost him to cancer. Sixteen years later sitting in his study with a shot of vodka to drown his conscience he understood the meaning of those words. In his hubris he worked on Project Manhattan to test his own limits and built an atom bomb,starting an arms race. He tried to console himself that Hiroshima and Nagasaki had to happen to end the war. The excuse sat hollow on his mind.

SHIELD was the organization he had helped build using his technological expertise,an attempt at penance for an oversight committee to ensure such genocide never took place again. War is never justified,no matter what the scale.

Abruptly shaking his head he stopped reminiscing. He had a habit of going off tangents. He would try to be a good man,if not for himself, then for his son. This was not a legacy he wanted to leave behind. After all he did not want his son to end up like him. A genius for which the world paid the price and eventually him.

The foundations of liberty and freedom of the United States experienced were not safeguarded and preserved on moral bullshit but rather millions of dead soldiers his weapons killed. No matter how they sugar coated the truth, he never forgot. He would try to raise a better man than he was or he would die trying.


	4. Life as a Stark

Being a newborn felt like a bad acid trip with poor control over his own musculature. He had no control over when he was cognizant,when he pissed,when he ate. Any complex thought was off limits and way too intense for a small developing mind. All he could do was try to divert himself by looking around and trying to find something in a vain attempt to amuse himself.

At the 8th month he was able to start crawling, life seemed to get interesting a bit. Trying to familiarize himself with where he was but his caretakers seemed to put him in the cradle he nicknamed jail. Any attempt at trying to curse them and their ancestors came out as incessant babbling.

Another weird thing he realized on gaining some sense of coherence was his habits seemed to have been muted,where he was once a cold calculating machine,the cold rage festering in the back of his mind seemed to have been snuffed out.

It was not to say that he had changed. No,it was difficult. But the persona he had adopted and had eventually become so ingrained in him and taken a backseat for some reason. Before ending up a mercenary,he was an intelligent man with dreams of grandeur who loved to partake in science experiments to further his understanding of the world. A pack of red bulls, a box of cigars with mind crunching work to do and he would be the happiest man once upon a time.

That intelligence had a drawback because he found most people silly and illogical. They talked about something,were something else. No synchronization between their thought process and reality. They lived so simple and insignificant lives,where there was no desire for greatness,to overcome their inabilities,to be better than your own self.

Most of his inventions had been stuck under legal purview by governmental organizations for the "public safety". Sugar Coated words replacing what was the truth. A double dealing politician lobbied by companies who would be adversely affected to halt its release. The lack of money to even pay for his family's treatment due to the government regulations blocking any money that would come from sales pushed him over the edge and the world paid its price. He ripped the world a new asshole. An assassin with a 240 IQ and peak human fitness,no wonder they called him a monster disguised as a man.

Yet all that anger seemed to have been snuffed out. Many a day was spent thinking over what should be done. He was Tony Stark,son of Howard Stark,reincarnated in the Marvel universe. He would have to look whether mutants existed in this universe. That opened a whole new can of worms he was unsure how to deal with it. Also fantastic four, then all those power hungry aliens in the comic verse who want to conquer earth.

He wondered if third Rate villains repeatedly attacking heroes just for some silly plot were a thing here. Also the higher tiered heroes and villains were really dangerous. He would have to carefully build safeguards against them. Magneto being the master of electromagnetism,Charles Xavier an Omega Level Telepath, Thor being the literal god of Thunder in this universe. Above them stood Monsters like Galactus and Thanos.

It made him hyperventilate the longer he thought about. The Tony Stark he knew was literally a man among gods and monsters and he stood firm in their faces. His intellect enabled him to go hand to hand with people far above his weight class. He wondered at times how a man could keep himself calm facing Armageddon.

Being calm in the face of death is understandable,but to be as insignificant as a gnat for the opposition didn't sit right with him. This was a universe where power was attainable to ordinary mortals. To transcend their limits. Where freak accidents could make heroes such as Hulk and Spiderman.

A plan was slowly forming in his mind. A smile started creeping up on his face. He had no plans of staying an ordinary squishy mortal when there were so many options. He spent them rest of the time slowly finalizing the plan in his mind. his smile getting creepier. Finally he lifted his head back and laughed maniacally pumping his hands in the air. He tried to say "All hail Lord Tony" and all that came out of his mouth was incoherent babbling.

He heard choking noises from near the door and saw his father looking at him in absolute fascination,like he was looking at an exotic toy whose inner workings escaped his understanding. Tony slowly lowered his arms and tried to appear innocent.

His father raised and eyebrow,walked to his study and opened the bottom drawer and bought out a tumbler and whiskey and then proceeded to pour out a generous portion. He then drank it quickly saying " I have one crazy kid". Howard freaked out again when I started laughing.

It was tough to decide on what his first word would be, whether he should call out his mother or his father. Finally he decided on father. Howard was a weird ass guy who looked at him like he used to look at advanced integrals once upon a time and had this funny stupefied look on his face that like he had no idea what to do whenever he looked at me, but come on this was Captain America's buddy. The fact that Howard had a billion dollar company and access to exotic materials had nothing to do choosing him first. No sir.

Being able to crawl and sit,Tony would cry and only quiet down when he was allowed into Howard's study and quietly sit on a corner sofa with arms and legs wide like a boss and stare at him intensely. Tony was pretty sure one checkup at the hospital was to check for brain damage and any abnormalities. Howard might have been traumatized with some of the shit he did. Whispering "dun dun dun" in a anticipatory tune every time he came to me under my breath seemed to freak him out.

Tony decided to put an end to it today.

Tony waited to be lifted by Howard before his nap time and said "Dad" as soon as he came close to him,Howard was shocked and then he smiled the widest Tony had ever seen and ran off calling for his wife to bring the camera. Howard sure as hell loved Tony even if he didn't know how to show it. Tony thought of it as a curse of geniuses that they fail to accurately portray how they feel.

The following months, Tony's parents and the nannies looking after him tried to teach him what he considered baby shit (Rhymes and poems) . Maybe the disdain in Tony's glare scarred them so much that they eventually stopped. Tony blew away his parents by quickly learning how to read and showing developed mental faculties far above his age and proved himself to be extremely intelligent,completely demolishing the intelligence curve.

By the time Tony was four,he had built his first circuit board. Howard was proud thought Tony, for he bought out a bottle of champagne to celebrate. Although he looked at me sternly when Tony did the give me motion with his hand pointing towards it.

Howard spent his evenings with Tony, sitting and teaching him about different scientific fields and how they supplemented each other rather than go the traditional route of covering a single field in gradual increments like traditional education did.

It was his way of bonding with his genius son. He knew of no other way. Howard's expertise expertise lay in mechanical engineering and he devoted each Sunday to teach the concepts to Tony ,even going as far as building toy kits for him to him play with and design. Tony built his first engine at the age of 6.

Tony understood what Howard tried to do,spending his time trying to instill the critical ability to create in Tony. It was one thing to know about concepts. A completely different thing to develop practical applications out of it. Sometimes he marveled at the computing power his brain had. It was a sugar high for Tony,where it felt like his previous life was just peeping through a keyhole trying to broaden the horizon and now the goddamn door was thrown wide open.

Concepts were laid bare before him and understood from different perspectives. Looking at all the ideas filtering through his brain he wondered at times why the Tony Stark mentioned in the comics ever limited himself. The ideas his brain came up with and practical designs that would work out made him think about how the Tony Stark could have single-handedly leveraged mankind into a Golden Age, a technological paradise where everyone was safe and given the best possible life. This was a golden opportunity for him. Being born as Tony Stark he had access to avenues that were shut in his previous life. Not anymore.

The new engine design Tony came up with was patented by Howard. Tony had several ideas he stored away in his mind to be revisited later. Occasionally he sat in his gardens late night pondering about the course of actions he should undertake,whether he should act on his foreknowledge or let events transpire while tangentially benefiting of them.

It pained him knowing his parents would die by the time he turned 18, but several of his plans to save the world rested upon him having complete control over Stark Industries. Howard while intelligent, was also very possessive and would seek to shelter tony and question him on each action. The oversight would greatly hinder him in his plans for the world. Several of which were morally gray but essential. He understood that quote now. The hardest choices require the strongest wills. Well Tony had a decade before those events came to pass and he hoped to find a better alternative. Slowly he stood up and began walking back to his bed. He had work to do tomorrow morning.


	5. Building the Foundation

**Timeskip: 10 years later**

* * *

Tony stood patiently in the line waiting to receive his degree.

Howard was invited to deliver the graduation speech and was exchanging pleasantries with other scientists. He looked at the crowd searching for Tony and met his eyes. Tony gestured with his finger pointing towards his watch sideways and then made a finger gun and acted like he was shooting himself in the head dramatically. Howard laughed from across the crowd and quickly ended his talk and walked towards the podium.

Looking down at the wide smiling faces in the crowd, Howard felt bittersweet remembering times when the world was black and white instead of infinite shades of grey. He loved working and inventing stuff. Once that was done, All that mattered was the women and booze back in the day and he partied so hard they had a quip back then. Party hard like a Stark.

He quickly ran through different iterations of perspectives he could cover and the wisdom he could convey effectively. Most of the things repeatedly said in speeches were cheesy and wasteful according to him,their effect draining within moments. He was too carefree once upon a time and would have done a spit take if someone told him he would put in effort and time for the next generation. Steve had changed him. Inspired him to something more than himself.

Taking a deep breath he braced himself putting his hands widely on either edge of the podium leaning forward and said in a sombre tone "Studying at MIT with access to some of greatest minds and resources surely makes you among the top 1% in the world. I wish I could give you glad tidings. I wish I could tell you all how successful you all shall be. But a majority of you are going to lead mediocre lives. You have been coddled and protected from the harsh world. The world does not care for you and it doesn't owe you anything. The sooner you learn it the better. It's not supposed to be fair. I repeat it's not supposed to be fair."

He stopped for a moment and took a sip of water from the glass near the right edge of the podium and looked distant. Swallowing, he kept the water glass back down and said "The reason I say that mediocrity shall follow most save a few is because of how they approach life. Success has started to be measured in the amount of money one has,their influence. People study but they do not learn,never try to transcend their limits. You do not have the courage to follow through to impose your terms on life and in turn you are subject to life's terms,shackled by your fate."

He looked for Tony in the crowd and upon meeting his eye,Tony was wide eyed shaking his head sideways saying no silently, his forearm stationary moving the hand rapidly across his neck. Seeing the confused look on Howard's face, he hit his face with his hand.

Howard was confused. He was delivering a wonderful speech enlightening these little chumps about the world. A good ol dose of passive insults,then a few gradual compliments,end it with sharing a few grand visions for the future and how they can be a part of it and they would bend over in respect.

He missed the times he could bring a few models to parade around like he did during his youth at his expo,gadgets all round,loud upbeat music,booze flowing freely. He felt in his element then. People gravitated towards him. In shock and awe of him. That was the time.

Maria had put her foot down when he tried to do it again. He loved her dearly but dammit he felt old and stuffy like those old farts in the military wearing formal suits. She was looking at him on the right end of the stage laughing silently. He raised an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes and motioned him to get on with it. He looked back at the young gullible crowd in front of him and started speaking again.

"So as I was saying. Do not limit yourself. You already have the knowledge." he paused for emphasis, deepened the voice was maximum effect

"Go forth in the world,be great and do what you love. What I learnt in my life is that, doing what you love and getting paid for it is the best way to lead a happy life. Find what you love. Excel in it. Create value out of your knowledge. And always remember that the best inventions happen right at the intersection of different scientific fields. So broaden your horizons. Never stop learning. Never stop growing. I never did and I ended up a billionaire. Who knows what lies in store for you. I believe in you."

The crowd roared in approval. Despite them appearing insulted at the earlier part,the passion with which Howard ended the speech got them pumped up,there were whistles and loud clapping.

Then of course he had to spoil it. He leaned forward and said

"Of course I don't believe in you. I just said it to make you all feel better."

The crowd took it as a joke. Tony knew it wasn't one. God his old man was a self obsessed troll. Howard walked away from the podium with finesse and met a few more elitist shrinks in a confident stride that came from decades of practice. Howard's saving charm was his intellect,confidence and hard headedness. He achieved everything he ever told he would and the world put him on a pedestal for it.

The students then parted and started leaving, Tony went on to meet his parents. His mother looked at him with such a kind beautiful smile,his heart fluttered a bit.

She hugged him tightly and kissed his forehead and said "My baby boy graduated at 16. I'm so proud" and wiped away a few errant tears with the edge of her sleeve.

His father stood at the side reserved with a smile. He kept both his hands on Tony's shoulders and said "You have done the Stark name proud". Tony rolled his eyes.

Of course this guy would say that. He wondered at times if Howard was emotionally disabled.

Tony replied good naturedly "Thank you dad." Then took on a deeper voice and tried to imitate his father's voice "You are welcome Tony. I love you Tony. You are the best son. Tony,you are so awesomely intelligent,even more than me" in a single breath

Howard sniffed indignantly while Maria held her sides unable to contain her laughter.

"Such banal sentimentalities are beneath my station. I would never do that. Too much testosterone and ego for both of us to concede intellectual superiority to the other"

Tony laughed and started walking towards the car. Howard's security retinue following them from a comfortable distance. Tony got In the front of the Rolls Royce while Howard and Maria got in the backseat, simultaneously letting out a sigh. Their strenuous routine doing them no favours. Their custom fitted car was beautiful customized for comfort. No wonder they felt so relaxed. Tony rolled out the car on the street and started driving.

Maria clicked the button on her sidearm,opening a compartment with cold drinks. She opened them and took a sip. Nudging Howard on his shoulder, she told him "Next time you are reading from the cards I prepare for you. No more trying to be deep and no more passing on your so called wisdom. Poor children looked so downtrodden when you said a majority of them would lead mediocre lives."

"Hey, it's the blunt truth. We both know it" Howard replied defending himself

"Right in the ass. That too without lube dad" Tony said smirking

Maria looked scandalized and hit Tony on his shoulder " Shut your potty mouth. I won't have my son speaking such vulgar language,tell him Howard" she said looking at Howard and subtly gesturing towards Tony.

"It's not like that Tony. It's just a little hurtful maybe,i just want to ripen them for the world" Howard Replied

Maria looked at him like one looks at a four year old trying to explain something profound "But you do not have to say it that way. You present mediocrity as threat and subtly encourage them"

"I did encourage them"

"After you finished shit talking them" she said with a pointed look.

" I dont know what you are talking about" Howard replied and subtly shuffled aside and pretended to fall asleep

"Typical Howard" said Maria rolling her eyes.

Tony looked at her from the rear view mirror and told her."Leave him be mom. He has good intentions but poor delivery"

Maria laughed and said "That's putting it subtly". She then put aside her drink and adjusted her seat.

"I'll take a nap Tony. Wake me up when we reach ok?"

Tony smiled and replied "Sure"

Tony looked back at his parents and smiled. Days like these warmed his cold heart. All the stress and fear of the upcoming years mellowed out in moments like these.

Howard seemed to have fallen asleep while trying to fake it. He was developing stress lines on his forehead,most of his time spent in the lab on some secretive project he hid from Tony. Asking led to him telling Tony to be patient and that it was a surprise.

Tony took a deep breath and started smiling pondering over how life had thrown him a curve ball.

* * *

**Flashbacks to the Past**

Tony had gotten attached to his family. He loved his old man despite all his faults. As for his mother,no one could hate her,she was an angel. He had his up and downs with his family,but they grew on him.

He could understand how canon Tony did not get along with Howard. Howard did not know how to deal with children,his way of loving Tony was giving problems to solve and teaching Tony's about how he built up Stark Industries,laying out his thought process in the major decisions he took,the hard choices he had to make in his life.

Any disagreements involved him steadfastly ignoring the topic and walking away. Occasionally he would bring out the bottle from the cabinet and drink away the night reminiscing about his past and try to impress upon Tony about Steve or Captain America as people knew him. Any child would be fester anger in their heart if they failed to get familial gestures of love.

No wonder canon Tony had grown up was a visionary no doubt,for all his faults,he loved his family,he just didn't know better and Tony learnt to forgive him for it. He learnt to regard him as an intelligent friend.

Maria Stark was there to bridge Howard's shortcomings. Despite her busy schedule,she tried to make time for Tony as he was growing up. It was difficult, being the PR Manager of Stark Industries,Howard's Assistant and running a dozen different charity foundations. She had incredible empathy that I wondered how she ended up with an emotionally incompetent Howard.

Howard,Maria and Stane were the tripod on which Stark Industries thrived,each quarter of the year bringing in more money than the previous one,its stock seeing a never ending uptick.

Howard could develop machines and weaponry decades ahead of its time leaving competitors in the dust. Stane was the business whiz who could sell a condom to a priest if given the chance. He was in charge of operations and oversaw all contracts. Maria could connect to the public in a manner no one could ever match and got Howard into making machines for public use. Her insights leading stark industries to leverage their image in such a manner for their building revolutionary products like hybrid cars to clean energy,a feat that no one could match .

As for Stane,He taught Tony the intricacies of dealing with people and wheedling out information. How to read a cold read a person,how to make deals,to make a person think he needed something and to rob them naked with a smile. He was there for Tony when his parents were not,looked after him. He wondered what had driven Stane to the inhumane and treacherous actions in canon. He loved the stark family with his all,he was literally there for him when his own parents were not available for him, he was a cool uncle stereotype.

He did not know what had happened in canon to drive Stane to treachery. He was individually a billionaire on his side discounting his stock in Stark Industries. He had everything and with no apparent motive for his future actions. It was vexing for Tony.

How do you form contingencies to deal with someone who was there to watch you grow up from a kid to a man holding your hand along the way?.

These three figures in his life molded Tony intellectually, each contributing their skills and time for his development,but they all paled before the effort and time Jarvis put in.

A British man with dry wit,his nanny,butler,confidant all in one. He took care of Tony from when he was in the cradle to him becoming an adolescent. He missed Jarvis. He was there for Tony as a guardian angel,a mind to bounce ideas off,a presence that was comforting when his own family was not there. It broke his heart to watch the man die. Bastard had the audacity to say sorry before passing out from a stroke and dying,brain hemorrhage was fatal,the doctors could not save him.

Howard wept quietly at his funeral,as did Maria. Tony had stood there in the rain wondering why he got so attached. Death was a constant in his previous life and there were always things to be done so he never grieved, always on the move, each action precisely executed for maximum efficiency. It was no longer so.

He cried, memories playing out before him of good times. This was no longer a simple excursion to save the world with two dimensional characters. They had their own lives, he looked around him and realized he didn't know how he would bear Howard or Maria's death. Somehow without him realizing they wormed their way into his heart.

He swallowed heavily,his heart heavy and curled his fists,fingers tightening to so much that his pale skin appeared an angry red from the pressure. His mind running in overdrive,thinking up all the different things he could invent to ensure their safety. Next he calculated the time and effort to make each item and the sequence in which to build them. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Obadiah. Obi gently squeezed his shoulder and said. "Do not tarnish his memory with grief. He loved you and you should cherish the good times you had. He is always with you" Tony smiled painfully and started walking away. Time to create his magnum opus. No he was not doing it because he missed Jarvis's voice. He tried to falsely convince himself. He was not that emotional. At least that's what he tried to tell himself.

Tony had long since realized that any attempt on his part to build a general artificial intelligence was a futile attempt due to insufficient technology would first have to have a powerful computer at hand before attempting to make one. If he went ahead now he would end up building one that would be constrained and impotent in its prowess. He decided to gamble and have a talk with Howard. It took him a month to properly structure his plan. He purchased quite a few server machines and reconfigured them.

He told Howard about his goal to create an artificial intelligence and talked about being constrained by the technology of this time. Howard laughed suddenly and mouthed "Like father,like son"

Tony gave him the specifications he wanted,openly conveyed the constraints he was facing and bought out the stack of plans and concepts he had mapped out. Howard looked at them intently.

"Well,i'll be damned. I'm nearly outdone by my son"

"Really? That's it? I foresee the technological revolution and give Stark Industries an unprecedented advantage and my father says i'm just acceptable" Tony replied sarcastically.

And then with an exaggerated sigh he said "It is Ok pops. Must be hard to see your intelligent son outdo you"

Howard laughed and attempted to good naturedly jostle with Tony "Shut up kid. You still have a long way to go before you match your old man."

Tony laughed further and told Howard about his vision regarding a networked society,the future of distributed internet,the advanced communication technologies,handheld computers.

Howard quietly took it all in and absentmindedly told himself loudly " SHIELD would benefit with a mind like yours Tony. You are truly a visionary."

Tony started sweating bullets. He wanted to avoid upgrading his threat rating in HYDRA before he got sufficiently powerful.

"Dad,please let's keep our research and technologies proprietary for the meanwhile. After Operation Paperclip,SHIELD absorbed way too many hydra personnel and along with them their ideologies,i think. I don't trust them dad"

Howard went very very still the moment those words left my mouth. I wondered if I made a really big mistake saying it.

"Tony" he said in an extremely serious tone." Walk me through your reasoning once"

"Nazi Scientists who gained their knowledge through unethical experimentation gained entrance into SHIELD. You must have noticed their gradual shift into more exotic weaponry and experimental technology. I gained that pieced that info based on what you talk about your weapons development. Increased jurisdiction. Oversight is poor and restricted to few WSC members. In short it's the perfect breeding ground for a cult." Tony replied with a shrug

Howard closed his eyes and rested his head on his chair. He opened his eyes after 3 minutes and his eyes were shining with purpose.

"I'll be honest with you Tony. I'm a mechanical engineering genius and I can create the materials you need and the CPU based on your specifications."

Thinking over something he paused and after a while said "I will do one better and make you a neural server cluster of graphene based on your plans. You have my word." he gestured with his hand,the other lighting up his cigar

Tony could just nod dumbfounded.

Howard then got all sharp and focused intensely on Tony. "In return for my help,you have a deadline to create an AI in two years. It will take me a year to build you the materials. Two years Tony,and then I and Maria have unlimited access to his computing power"

Tony thought for a while and said " Sure,sounds pretty reasonable,as long as my programs are not throttled."

"Just build a working one Tony. I will give you a billion dollars of my own money as seed money for your own personal startup." Howard said smirking

Tony literally had a mindgasm when he heard that. He stood up with a purpose,eyes twinkling.

"Great,so shall we go to your lab and get started?" asked Tony

"No" told Howard getting up and stretching. "You are going to college. I want you graduated and done by 16. You will be testing out of school the next week. I don't care what Maria says. This is a decision I will not budge on,no matter what. Your potential is being wasted in school" he then drifted off staring at a distance.

Tony coughed in his hand and Howard looked at him again and told. "You will be going to MIT. I'll build a lab near its campus. State of the art tools. It's high time I went back into tinker mode. It's been quite a while since I was so pumped up." Howard started jumping from one leg to another in a poor attempt to shadowbox

"Careful old man,take care of your health first and cut back on the booze while i'm gone to college"

Howard rolled his eyes and motioned for him to leave dismissively. Tony left his room.

He woke up next morning to see Howard,Maria and Stane having a real serious discussion with each other

Stane looked at Tony with a really impressed expression on his face. "That is one of the most revolutionary visions I have ever seen. You truly are your father's son. No one ever connected the dots in such a manner Tony. I'm proud of you"

He looked back at Stark and Maria, passionately tapping the plans scattered in front of him and said " This can help us transition from a war profiteering company into something greater." Howard quietly nodded looking at Maria.

She looked at the two men and told them "No pulling punches,you two work your magic" gesturing at Howard and Stane.." I will work mine. We can't miss a chance like this"

Tony was astonished to see his plans begin to be adopted.

A week later he tested out of school and started attempting at MIT. They rigorously tested him to evaluate his intelligence and finally after exhausting themselves, permitted him. The money Howard Stark donated and the promise of setting up new labs made them bend over too.

A few weeks later,Intel was purchased by Stark industries,and SI became a major shareholder in Microsoft and Apple. They narrowly avoided an antitrust lawsuit from the US government.

Stane rubbed shoulders with the US generals,telling them how computer tech could create more accurate missile systems,secure america's tech superiority,he whispered sweet things into their ears about how respected and important they would be in the public's eye for such a milestone during their period.  
Maria got the public's ear about creating smart cars,easy transportation,and a whole new radical technologies to improve their standard of living.  
Howard put on his genius persona and gave demos regarding his creations,rebuilt the stark expo and put the whole country into rabid excitement and hope regarding his inventions and dreams for the future.

Tony saw the deadly combination of power,brains and money in them and how much they could achieve in such a short time. Barely a month had started and his lab was ready near the MIT campus,he didn't know what Howard talked with the chancellor but all he had to do was turn in his assignments and pass the final exams and in turn they would not bother him. He was free to attend or skip granted he passed in the upper 90th percentile.

Hank Pym turned up at the lab along with Howard one day. Both old timers seemed to be in on something they wouldn't tell Tony about and were working fervently day and night. Stane and Maria were taking care of the company,while Howard race to finish on his year deadline.

Hank was a really esoteric scientist. He had a moral streak more than mile wide,had moments when he was super macho. Tony thought how dope a person had to be to carry a real tank that had been miniaturized by Pym Particles as a key-chain.

Hank was an absolute madman who took the most abstract of concepts and built something out of it. Quantum Mechanics was his bitch and he was the best in the field,or so he liked to boast. Tony got a kick out of teasing him for being a unintelligent macho man. Pym could not give back an answer for Tony's words were " You built subatomic particles capable of shunting or adding mass and reducing or increasing scale of any form of matter, compressing physical forces around such objects or organisms that they are applied to, as well as increasing density and strength and you had to go build a suit to play hero. You could have revolutionized space tech, shipping, cancer treatments, there are so many applications, but you wanted to a spandex hero"

Hank sulked for a week after that. They built a camaraderie and Tony learnt a lot from him. At the year's end Howard gifted Tony his first supercomputer that was literally decades ahead of anything on earth. Tony cracked his fingers and got ready coding, Hank and Howard building specialized sensors for the supercomputer.

It made Tony happy to see his father goof around with Hank. Howard was an inventor at heart,who only cared about money for the freedom of choice that it provided and nothing more.

Howard and Hank ended up building graphene neural clusters,room temperature superconductors and for some reason never publicly declared there research findings.

They were silent when asked for a reason and urged Tony quite seriously to be mum about it. They seemed to be gearing up for some kind of war

Tony started working on the code for the AI that would eventually become JARVIS, adding iterations upon iterations of improvements, one layered upon the other, trying to give human level intelligence to a computer. How does one teach a computer to reason,solve represent knowledge dynamically based on the situation,the cues of social intelligence,of the concepts of perception and motion.

Tony adopted a multi pronged strategy where he utilized generative adversarial networks to help the AI construct scenarios and evaluate them. Recurrent neural networks to remember past actions and speed up decision making like in humans. Reinforcement learning for optimization of the ideal state of functioning.

Scenarios that could not be comprehended by the AI would be prompted for clarification by the end user and supervised learning strategy utilized to improve the knowledge base. For understanding the hidden correlations between data points - unsupervised learning.

Meta learning for optimizing each of these techniques further and evolutionary algorithms to further evolve the AI's intelligence exponentially. It took him a year's worth of work to make the AI and then finished the last steps. He took a deep breath and turned it on.

"Good morning Sir,how may I serve you today?" the flat voice of JARVIS lacking the tonal inflection and dry wit of his caretaker.

Tony closed his eyes engrossed in memory and opened them again.

"Good Morning JARVIS. Welcome home" he replied.

There was work to do. He finished installing instruction set two, added the routines and installed the drivers for the various sensors. More data was good. Tony had finished all of the required physical parts for JARVIS, as well as just enough of his programming, and booted him up for the second time. If everything worked as it should, JARVIS would finish writing the rest of his own code and all Tony would have to do was integrate the newly written parts into his overall scheme.

* * *

**Present TIme**

Tony shook his head to distract himself from the past,he had a weird habit of reminiscing over the past at times. He clicked the side button on his steering wheel and slowly a big flap extended from between the seats isolating him from his parents sitting behind him.

He tapped his ears and said. "You there buddy"

"Always for you sir" came the reply in a rich cultured British voice

Jarvis was an unprecedented help. Hank and Howard had been stumped when he told them he succeeded. They then proceeded to make fervent use of Jarvis computing prowess for running their own simulations greatly reducing their experimentation times,sometimes even skipping directly to production phase since they had hooked up Jarvis to a fabricator.

He would have to take up his father on the bet regarding the seed money,it would go a long way in helping him bringing out all the technologies he thought up. It would also help him conduct his truly dangerous experiments that were essential for the future. He would go to the depths of hell to achieve his goals. It was high time he started implementing his ideas. There was so much to do.

* * *

**Spoilers : Next chapter Tony will work out some gadgets both for selling and gifting a few of them to his parents for security. With the character building done. The next chapter will focus on technology and the impacts of him selling it,followed by an interlude from the perspective of Howard,then Stane and finally Hank Pym. **

**I will try to deliver a 10k-15k chapter update every two weeks from now. For those of you who are going to go nuts saying i'm not portraying a sociopath,i have re-imagined Tony and made his family a soft spot for him. The rest of the world is still going to face an hardened man. I'm trying to maintain a balance. Not end up with a fluff story while also not coming across as too edgy.**

**The tony in this chapter is softer in his interactions with him family. The next chapter will cover his ruthlessness. And how he is viewed from other's perspective,so please wait for me to complete before flaming.**

**While a few people may be annoyed i'm not directly jumping into the action and saving the world. Let me tell you give you good news. **

**Now that the characters are fleshed out,i can comfortably proceed with the plot without making the characters come across like some 2-d chunni villain . This level of details helps build a proper narrative that i can further work on to show their motivation and continue to build the story cohesively.**

**Please feel free to leave a comment,and post your constructive reviews. Thank you for reading**

**PS: I would be exceptionally grateful if someone could point me to a few resources such as an info graphic or a detailed article for timelines in the MCU for different groups of heroes and villains. It would make my job easier and make the story consistent instead of spoiling your mood with its inconsistencies. Thank you once again.**


	6. Revelations

**Revelations**

Tony rolled the car into the mansion. It was ginormous. Howard liked to go big with ostentatious displays of power and the mansion showed his extravagance.

He asked JARVIS to open the garage door and pressed a button on his left that brought down the flap separating his compartment from his parents.

"Home Sweet Home Mom"

Maria opened one eye lazily and looked out of the window and then let out a breath heavily and could not believe that the trip was over so quickly. She nudged Howard and he too woke up lazily. Tony bought the car to sub level 1 that was car parking. He parked the car on the central platform and walked out of the car, his parents trailing him and the platform along with the car was moved away to the side by JARVIS.

"Hey old man, up for some tinkering? " asked Tony

"No, go ahead. I'm a bit tired. Will catch you later"

"Sure," said Tony shrugging his shoulders.

Howard and Maria left for their bedroom while Tony walked into his lab and the transparent door opened automatically after JARVIS confirmed his identity using bio authentication. Tony walked in and threw the cylinder containing his degree to one end of the room. It made a clanging noise as it fell.

Tony clapped loudly once and said "Cmon, JARVIS wakey wakey. Sugar daddy has come home"

"Your enthusiasm is infectious sir. What shall we be doing today?" asked JARVIS dryly

Tony looked around the lab. There were several things that he did want to start working on but they would have to wait. In the meantime, he could design and smooth out the technicalities for the swift completion of his tasks.

"JARVIS, initialize a project, name it as Miniaturised Arc Reactor, and keep it on my private server. Dedicate only 5% of your off-peak cycles to its improvisation if you want to do so. This technology is a stepping stone according to me and any further improvements will not pan out exponential returns as we require."

"Project has been initialized as per your specifications sir."

Tony picked up a pencil and rotated it between his fingers, his elbows on the table, stiffly seated on the chair deep in intense thought.

"What are your projections for the adoption of technology, to the levels I want them to be?"

"My estimations will be inaccurate since I have no baseline to compare"

"What do you think JARVIS?. I'm not asking for a scientifically accurate estimate but rather a perspective of yours?" Tony asked fingers moving through his hair in a frustrated manner. "It's tough for me to maintain a balance, moving slowly enough to allow different industries to rise around the technologies I create and build a stable environment instead of it all collapsing like a house of cards while also trying to move fast before the government wets its pants in fear and ties up developments using unwanted legislation in the name of democracy and free market"

"Sir, while there will be detractors and people wanting to avoid technology, a majority will use it simply for the utility your devices provide. I would suggest hiding in plain sight, sir. The best way to have a secret is by shoving it right under their noses wrapped up as another. The plan your father came up with along with his friend was multi-faceted. Using subsidiaries and decoys they can control different portions of the market's ecosystem while maintaining a facade of autonomy."

Tony looked like Christmas came early. His old man was a shark. "Do tell me the plan"

"It has been quite a while since the internet has gone live. Howard has already gifted high-performance servers with specs a decade ahead of any other competitors, to a majority of the big universities all around the world. Networking forum sites have already sprung up, though the focus is research right now. Another partner of ours is building a modern operating system to go hand in hand with the hardware improvements. Promoting the sharing of information among different universities will lead to greater improvements. They already are drooling over the tools available for analysis of data, and the ease of crunching numbers at speeds that they dreamt was out of their grasp. Once our tech gains hold in academia, you can expect companies to follow."

"Good, while the scientific community and the companies benefit from it, I don't see the plan to attract the ordinary man"

"Sir, the Stark Expo will be in January. That gives us 5 months. It's going to be held after a long time and people all over the world will come for such a big event. He plans to reveal the first laptop as you put it and the smartphone, made from the designs you provided. 200 million phones and 50 million laptops are being planned to be manufactured initially. The launch of the new mobile devices will be 8 months after the reveal, allowing enough time for software engineers to familiarise themselves with the technology. It will be the start of a burgeoning ecosystem around the smartphones, that is what we hope to achieve. The improvements will slowly make themselves known in the lives of the people eventually."

"Excellent, but how are you going to deal with such slow speed internets."

"Sir, Obadiah came through and somehow cowed the politicians and gained all the exclusive rights we were gunning for. Within the next six months, we will have high-speed graphene data lanes as per our requirements. The project will move at an accelerated rate due to you marking it as an extremely high priority for future developments."

"Great. Go ahead and compile a list of bottlenecks in science and technology that plague various sectors. I could very well design futuristic technology but all it would achieve would be superficial. Improvements in the understanding of the sciences by the masses will further boost humanity's reach and that, in turn, will boost our capabilities. Try to come up with plans to speed up the adoption of the internet. A networked world is a world at our fingertips JARVIS."

"Ok sir"

"Bring up my workspace, compile the code I had written yesterday, set a reminder for me to have a conversation with father today night. Also, get me food. On second thought remind me to start a food delivery business 2 months before we start launching smartphones."

"Done, Your reminders have been set and the tasks completed sir"

"Don't call me sir. It makes me feel like a tyrannical teacher in the classroom. Call me Tony"

"Ok, Tony," Jarvis said testing out the waters.

Tony smiled and started working on his latest project. He moved over to his holographic projector and started designing.

"JARVIS. Make a task list."

"On it Tony"

"Remind me to finish evaluating the final designs of the forcefield generator and the bulletproof suits I designed for mom and dad. Another thing that I want to design is a catalytic water converter, that breaks down water into hydrogen and oxygen, combusts them for energy and the best part is that the waste product is water itself."

" Run a few simulations on the alloy I designed a few weeks ago, according to my calculations it will be excellent for transmitting wireless signals without any tangible drawbacks. And as for the converter "

Doing a few mental calculations he estimated " For a thousand dollars I can make one that can power two households at least with a little left over in the bucket. We can build different variants of it too. A mini portable version for travelers, another heavy-duty version for the army."

"That is a good idea and will generate a lot of revenue."

Tony laughed and said "Well, then let's get to work"

He spent the next 2 hours designing his prototype, JARVIS ran simulations on his designed models to test them virtually for any imperfections and evaluate whether they lived up to their promise.

Once the designing was over, Tony walked over to his fridge, pulled out a red bull and started chugging on it. He threw the can in the trash bin and removed a cigar from the case and started smoking contemplatively.

"JARVIS, start another project. A plastic synthesizer, that can create plastics from plant matter as long as there is some oil content in them"

"Done, also might I make a suggestion. Based on the blueprints you have uploaded on my server, I came along an idea during one of my simulations. You could make a solar-powered filtration unit, highly useful in third world countries and remote areas, millions are affected by unhygienic drinking water. "

"Excellent idea. Do me a favor and make a design. And don't bother to hide your intelligence. I already realized that you gained true sentience a few months back. I trust you buddy. Enough to not go Skynet on humanity's collective ass.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Tony," JARVIS replied in a strange tone full of emotion and continued

"I shall get right to it, and the simulations have been completed. The forcefield generator should work as expected. It can safely stand up to six indirect grenade blasts or a direct hit by a bazooka."

Tony nodded "uh huh"

"The bulletproof suit safely guards against small arms, rifles and machine guns would bruise the user badly. While the structural integrity is maintained, taking sustained fire head-on will lead to heavy internal bleeding. The kinetic energy has to dissipate somewhere as you know"

Tony thought it over for a while and replied "Great, pass on the designs for the forcefield generator to the fabricator, also come up with some fancy names for the forcefield generator with a shock factor in your free time. It feels like a mouthful. Once that is done, synthesize a few suits for mom and dad using the bulletproof fabric I've designed and let me know once you are done with that."

"Sure Tony"

Tony rolled his shoulders and started working on his arc reactor. The hours flew by and he barely felt them and just a soon as he finished making it, the intercom buzzed with Maria's angry voice.

"Tony, what the hell are you doing cooped up in your lab? The maids told me you didn't turn up for eating dinner and for breakfast too. Its lunch time now. Do you want to end up a wreck working? Do it again and I'll take away your lab time"

"What the hell. I've just been here for some.." Tony turned and looked dumbfounded at the clock and slowly said "time"

He had been in the lab for 16 hours and barely realized it. All of a sudden he started feeling those 16 hours of work once the work mania subsided. He tiredly looked at his arc reactor and whispered into his earpiece "JARVIS, the projects done yet?"

"A couple more minutes sir and they will be. The converter and forcefield projector is waiting on your secondary workbench. I'm just finishing up with the suits"

His conversation with JARVIS was interrupted by the irritated voice of Maria.

"Are you coming or not Tony?"

"Coming Mom" Tony replied and left the lab after the suits were completed. He took the items he created and left them in the living room except for the arc reactor which he pocketed.

He walked upstairs to the dining room and saw Obadiah sitting across the table having a cheeseburger with french fries, Maria looking disapprovingly at him, while Howard looked longingly at the cheeseburger. Hank appeared amused at the antics going on at the table.

Upon seeing him Obadiah gestured at the pizza on the table "Your favorite flavor Tony. Congratulations on being the youngest graduate in the history of MIT. Meet me tonight at my hangout. I have just the right present in mind for you kid" he told with a wink

"Thanks, Obi" Tony dropped himself on the chair and started digging in on the pizza. He was very hungry. Obadiah just dipped forward his head in acknowledgment and joined the banter on the table. Discussion regarding some law being passed in the parliament.

Tony barely paid attention to it. His mind running on steroids. How could he have forgotten about jumping in biotech? Lab-grown meat would be a massive hit once the public overcame their paranoia. Getting the exact type of meat you preferred cooked, just exactly the right way you want it would attract customers like honey attracts flies. He made a mental note to look into it once he was back in his lab.

Tony stuffed his mouth with pepperoni pizza thinking about how to set up the lab and what he would require for researching, how one could go on about creating lab-based meat that would be indistinguishable from the real deal while being scalable, hygienic and efficient in production. He was about to drink water and all of a sudden Hank's voice called out.

"Tony, as you know Stark and Pym industries make annual donations to the range of tens of millions to various charities and support several schemes for the poor both in America and abroad. The expansion schemes that were outlined last time we had the discussion, will need a lot of money for execution. We could have footed the bill easily but the diversification, which both mine and Howard's company undertook last year depleted our cash on hand. While our companies have massive revenue, It will take another year to build up our war chest. We could take money from the banks but they are going to charge a premium based on the market conditions as you know it.

Hank looked at Howard, who put down his paper and looked intently at Tony and asked

"Should we skip our charity schemes this year and fund our expansion or do we take the loan from banks for a dip in the profit margin?"

"Howard" started Maria but she was silenced by the stern look on Howard's face who raised a hand with a gesture to shut up. While Howard appeared genial most of the times there were moments his dominant personality shone out like this. He waited for Tony to say something

Tony hated moral dilemmas like this. It dug out older memories in him, of his previous life, of a time when he lacked money. Should he give money to the beggar who asked for it or should he save some for himself? Often he gave away the money, not because of some misguided sense of righteousness but rather in a hollow attempt to convince himself he cared for the man's plight. That he was not an emotionless husk like people assumed him to be.

Tony took a deep breath and put his hand in his pocket and bought out the arc reactor and put it on the table. Howard appeared dumbfounded, Obadiah looked ecstatic. Hank looked on curiously at the arc reactor.

"Is that what I think it is?" and he turned to look at Tony

"Yes, it is" replied Tony smugly.

"You are looking at the future of clean energy. It should easily generate eight gigajoules per second according to my calculations."

"The army generals will sell their firstborns for such powerful technology but instead of giving them access to such powerful technology which will most definitely start the new arms race, we should look into creating transportation for the military, both in airforce and navy. The energy requirements can be easily taken care of by these arc reactors, a dumbed down virtual interface for interactions with the pilots and the materials built using your proprietary alloys. We can get all the new contracts in a single swoop."

Howard who had picked up the arc reactor and was looking at it put it down and looked back at Tony.

"That is wonderful but how does it help us in this situation? It would take us time to get the money we require, they will take a long time to pass the bill. Time we do not have"

Tony picked up his slice and took a bite out of it. He swallowed it after chewing on it a few times. He looked back at Howard while gesturing at Obadiah

"We utilize his dual citizenship to start a subsidiary of Stark industries in the European Union and showcase this technology to their governments. They are big on clean energy. We would be swimming in money in the end from all the contracts abroad and the government cannot restrict us from selling the technology abroad citing the Arms Export Law."

Howard looked at Obadiah whose eyebrows were raised to his forehead. He looked at Tony and with a grimace answered " While the idea is wonderful, it overlooks any potential backlashes that may come from the US government. Taking a step as you suggested will erode a lot of goodwill that I and have father have gathered over the years."

Tony shrugged his shoulders and told them. "That is all I got. I could magic up a catalyst to convert lead into gold to fund up our business but we all know that based on the scale we operate, such action will adversely affect the economy driving prices further down with saturation."

He angrily picked up his last piece and started chewing on it rapidly "Or you could most definitely take pre-booking orders for various technologies starting from the Stark Expo. We have an AI. Let's build some more neural clusters for him to improve his capabilities. Build him a completely automated factory attached to fabricators. And boom. You are looking at the first ever personalization of technology ever witnessed. Whatever a person wants can be built down to his most specific requests. An armchair with vibrating backrest. Done. Preprogrammed synchronized lighting shoes for dancers. Done. Any mundane request no matter how silly can be accommodated."

"Well that certainly is ambitious," said Howard leaning back. He took a deep breath and made some kind of gesture to Hank. Hank looked at Tony intensely for a while. Then he adjusted himself on his chair and looked back at Howard and gave a firm nod.

"Ok, Obadiah and Maria are going to finalize the final details for the Stark Expo. We will brainstorm the various projects we intend to display."

Obadiah understood what Howard intended and stood up laughing and buttoned up his suit. He looked at Tony and gestured at him "Don't forget Tony. My place at 10 sharp today" and walked out of the room along with Maria who stopped to kissed Tony on the forehead before leaving.

Howard got up from his chair and gestured for Tony to follow him. On his way out he pressed a button near the doorway to alert the maids to come over and clean the dining room.

Hank followed behind them at a sedate pace. Tony took a detour to the living room and came back with his creations packed in a semi transparent wrapper. Howard raised an eyebrow and Tony gestured later at him.

All three of them got into the elevator. Howard pressed his hand on the scanner and said "Sub Basement 5, Lab X"

"Authorization code" came out JARVIS's voice. Tony looked shocked. All he knew was there were four sublevels in the basement of his house. The garage took the first one, the storage room for materials was on the second sublevel, his lab on the third sublevel, and Howard's was on fourth.

"There isn't one JARVIS"

"Authorization Code accepted sir".

Tony looked at the camera and asked JARVIS. "Et Tu JARVIS. couldn't you have told me we have a secret sublevel in our house."

JARVIS sounded sincere and apologetic "Your directives to obey your father, and the integrity protocols you coded in me prevented me from disclosing it all to you sir. "

Tony fakely sniffed and acted like he was hurt "My creation is spurning me. Woe is upon me"

Hank laughed good-naturedly and thumped Tony on his back " All in good time Tony" he said looking distant in thought he applied a bit of pressure to Tony's shoulder. "All in good time"

With a soft hiss, the elevator opened and Tony was blown away by what he saw inside the room. Howard put his arm across Tony's shoulder and pulled him inside the lab. He came near his workbench and gestured for Tony to sit on the stool across him. Hank took the one on the other end of the bench and sat patiently.

"Tony, the question we asked today was not merely rhetorical. While we have several ideas too, between me and Hank. I wanted to see what you would do when faced with tough decisions. I wanted to look at the kind of man I raised."

Howard walked up to Tony and placed both his hands on his shoulders eyes tearing up slightly.

"I'm proud of the man you have become. Remember that no matter how high the costs, no matter how tough the battle. Never compromise. Even in the face of Armageddon."

Tony understanding how somber the moment was quietly nodded. Howard seemed to be struggling with how to initiate what was on his mind. Eventually, he just deeply exhaled and sat tiredly on his stool and gestured around.

"Look around you Tony, I've worked and hidden my life's secrets in this lab for the past thirty years. The privilege of intellect we have makes us responsible, more so than any other around us. You, me and Hank. We are geniuses that are far more superior than any around us. It is our responsibility to ensure that we add value to the future rather than create dangerous inventions that will spell the doom of mankind. I've spent several hours thinking about the kind of legacy I will leave behind."

"There are several things that I have kept secret from the world that I wanted to share with you. I've only recently shared them with Hank because I could not do this alone and, certainly not without his Pym particles."

Hank looked deep in thought reminiscing about his past and told Tony "You've never met my wife Tony. She was everything I ever wished for. Kind, caring and was there for me during some really difficult periods of my life."

He picked up the solder from the table idly pressing the button and looked at Tony with sad eyes. "I was Ant-Man. A hero or so I thought. I worked with SHIELD, both as a scientist and as a field agent. Getting in and out of highly secure places. Completing missions. My wife accompanied me at times, she was a field agent too. I lost her when she went subatomic to bypass the tungsten carbide casing covering the circuits on the ICBM missile. My regulator was destroyed and she was the one who sacrificed herself to destroy the targeting system to prevent New York from being attacked."

"Death is easy Tony. Or so I believe. It's the living who have to bear the real pain and tragedy afterward. I had to hold my daughter and tell her that her mother isn't coming home because she had to save the world because her father could not save her mother. How do you explain that your kid who looks at you with hopeful eyes crying for mom?"

Hank deeply breathed and wiped tears from the corner of his eyes. "I quit being a field agent. I tried to be a good father and failed substantially at that. SHIELD trying to replicate my Pym particles without my permission was the last straw and I left the public eye."

Hank looked at Howard and said

"So imagine my surprise when Howard comes over to visit me after a couple of years telling me about his genius son and making small talk. That raised all sorts of alarms in my mind. Howard was a lot of things but never one to waste time on trivialities. He hands me a note saying the words. "SHIELD compromised. Meet at my lab. Under Surveillance. Burn note after reading."

He gestured around "and here I came to learn to my horror that SHIELD had been infested by Hydra all those years ago. We were so focused on dealing with external threats that we missed out internal ones. We don't know how far the infestation runs. There are few people I can safely say aren't Hydra. Howard here. Peggy, Fury and his subordinate Coulson. The rest I am not sure about."

"Howard here says he got the hunch from you and he followed through with it. What he discovered was several files missing completely, several people of interest completely fallen off the grid. Missions that were never sanctioned carried out on foreign territory. His office bugged to hell and back. He disguised his searching the archives by pitching a new kind of technology that he was developing, a touchscreen interface that could contain all the documents, was extra secure with all the features of a desktop computer and the size of a person's hands"

Howard looked thoughtful. "I think I got away with it. Maybe. I think?" He shrugged. "It's so difficult not knowing who to trust. SHIELD influences every aspect of the government. Peggy and I spent decades solidifying that control. Now it's coming back to haunt me. I chose not to include Peggy in on this. She is completely retired living with her niece. Got diagnosed with a mild form of Alzheimer's last month. She deserves a peaceful time, not another war when her body barely supports her."

Tony was serious and alarmed at the same time. From what he remembered, This never happened nor was it ever discussed in canon. Was this why Howard was killed by the Winter Soldier on Hydra's orders?. He would have to redouble his efforts to ensure it never happens.

"What is my part in all this. What do you want to me to do?" asked Tony intently

"Nothing Tony. I want you to keep your head down. Not release any dangerous inventions on the market. I will handle everything. Don't worry. I have a plan"

Tapping his fingers impatiently on the desk he looked at Tony and tried to sound jovial but failed at the attempt "Just in case I don't make it. I thought to tell you all about my thirty years of research."

Tony went ahead and put his hand on Howard's shoulder. "Don't say you won't make it. I will make sure of it. If something ever happens to you or mom. I'll drown the world in the ocean of blood"

Howard laughed and patted Tony's hand softly. "Just in case something happens to me. Take care of Maria. Will you?" he pleaded

Tony swallowed and answered. "You have my word"

Howard's eyes gained a glint of steel and he stood up and walked to the right end of the lab right to the deep storage unit and clicked the passcode. It opened to reveal 10 vials of deep red blood completely frozen along with several transparent vials containing some kind of blue liquid that seemed to be sparkling while a few were greenish blue.

Howard smugly looked at Tony

"The world thinks the secret to the super soldier serum died with Erskine. They are wrong."

Tony was gobsmacked and unsure about how to respond to this. He was unprepared for this situation.

Howard understood this and closed off the deep storage and walked back to the hologram and bought out Erskine's notes from the storage container.

"Just how?" Tony swallowed again and looked at Howard "Governments are spending billions trying to develop the super soldier serum and its sitting in my basement"

Howard laughed and gestured Tony to comer over. Hank was busy looking down the microscope and rapidly making notes on the workspace across them.

"The world has only one part of the equation and I think for the foreseeable future it shall be so"

Howard's eyes gained a dreamy glaze as he started thinking "You know Tony, as a kid I wondered what would mankind do if we all had magic. The ability to manipulate the world according to our requirements. As I got older and became a man of science, it was all but pushed into the back of my mind, until I met Erskine. He was a biomancer, or so he called himself"

Howard shrugged and laughed remembering the time. "He was a man who walked both worlds in his own words. He was an accomplished geneticist in scientific circles. According to his words, he was the best magician or a biomancer as he called himself, and could manipulate genetic structures using dimensional energy. He said a lot of fancy terms but it is simplified to this. I know you might be hesitant to believe me" Howard lifted his hands stalling Tony's argument.

"I was at that time. It took him throwing me out of my body into the Astral Dimension as he called it, to believe him."

"I asked him to show me some other magic but Erskine had shrugged and said that he lost his ability to do magic externally on a macro scale after some kind of magical accident."

Howard shrugged sadly but then slapped his thigh excitedly "Though he happily transmuted wood into gold, although it was the size of a coin and took him an hour of constant focus."

"Uh huh" came back Tony's cynical reply. He had to do so to avoid alerting his father. His penchant for not accepting anything at face value without several proofs was famous after all.

Howard rolled his eyes "Of course you will not believe me but hear me out. Erskine wanted to perfect a serum, something to bring out humanity's inner potential. Theoretically, geneticists assume that aging takes place due to the shortening of the telomeres, some think it's due to the small inefficiencies that build up during cell replication. Erskine, then a scientist came across this monastery in Kathmandu. Kamar-Taj, he called it. Where he witnessed magic being performed. On learning from them, he realized they channeled dimensional energy through their bodies to manipulate reality around them."

Howard had this fascinated look around him as he told him of the past "He came across a master using Chi, some type of energy that the body mystically produced once a user was trained in its arts. It bought the user to superhuman potential and expanded longevity drastically."

"In the next decade of his research, he learned that Chi, while mystical was also hereditary to some extent. Children born of powerful chi users had a greater capacity, while first generation users were generally poorer in their capacity."

"Erskine said he had this crazy idea. What if you could change someone's DNA using this Chi to become the most optimal version of itself. There are some people with excellent metabolism, some with excellent looks, others with muscles that generate extremely low lactic acid even during intense exercises. What if are these amazing abilities could be incorporated genetically in a person.?"

"He spent the next few years testing out his theories and came to a conclusion based on his experiments. Simply splicing specific portions of the DNA and transplanting them on host DNA would result in mutations simply because of the uneven rate of DNA transplantation. The process was too slow. The body's immune system would weaken due to conflicting genetic materials and turn cancerous."

"What he theorized was that there had to be some sort of energy to assimilate the DNA change rapidly to help the metamorphosis. Chi was his answer. But humanity as a whole was not ready to be given access to the mystical arts. He could not simply go around try to awaken Chi in someone and finding the right candidate. He shelved his research for a while and left for Germany."

"Schmidt, as you know, came to know of his research and forcibly took the serum becoming red skull and confirmed as hypothesis Erskine held."

"While he could bring out humanity's peak potential out using a serum that would let a baseline human bench press a car, it had another big question he wanted to be answered. 'Ex nihilo nihil fit'"

Tony got confused "How does conservation of energy play into this. Hang on, What does energy have to do with DNA at all now? I thought all Chi was supposed to do was flash change the DNA?"

"So did Erskine think too, but he later when Schmidt used his serum on himself and bombarded himself with radiation from the Tesseract, Erskine realized that it made the serum enabled the user to channel dimensional energy directly into his body subconsciously to fuel their extraordinary abilities."

"All Erskine wanted to build was a serum that brought humanity to its peak. What he ended up inventing enhanced the user to superhuman levels."

"How does that correlate to Schmidt ending up as red skull.?"

"Chi is some sort of mystical energy that the body naturally produced. It enhanced pre-existing capabilities to the max, bringing harmony between the soul and body or that is how Erskine put it. The corruption in Schmidt's soul was brought to the front"

"While the initial injection of the serum and application of energy flash changed the DNA, the residual energy woke up the body's ability to harness dimensional energy, though it was highly restricted to only channeling it through the body. It was what enabled all those superhuman feats, how else can a man simply bench press a truck and throw a two hundred pound bike like a frisbee."

"The energy has to come from somewhere. While genetics might help in boosting strength and reducing recovery time. It simply isn't possible for a human to do so. While a powerlifter can show great feats of strength he simply cannot run at the speed of 70 km/h. That was the average sprint speed of Steve when he got going."

"So that is why you worship old cap?"

"The serum brings a body to peak potential. Then enhances any attributes of the enhanced both mentally and physically to the extreme. Erskine hit a gem with steve rogers. Based on Erskine's and my estimations, only one in a million men would end up as stable as Captain America. Between him and the Red Skull, there are a million different scenarios that can play out that I know nothing about."

Howard didn't but Tony could. Bruce Banner with a repressed childhood, ended up as Hulk while researching the serum, accidentally bombarded by gamma radiation, developing a vengeful persona. Emil Blonsky, a twisted individual, ending up as the Abomination. Each time they triggered their bodies would channel some sort of dimensional energy and transform them into what monsters capable of extraordinary feats.

"So that is why you worship CAP. I get why you are so in love with that man now. Even after each trait was amplified, both the bad and the good, he was a still a saint, he must be the rare breed."

"He was the best amongst us"

"I also think he did not die, based on my calculations and observations of his abilities. I think his body must have entered hibernation after he ended up crashing in the ice. I spent years and billions of dollars trying to find him but all I have to show for it is the Tesseract"

Howard continued, "I should let you know that there were twenty vials of Steve's blood. Five are in SHIELD's cold storage. Three with the military. Two were used up by me testing his blood, the remaining ten are here in the cold storage"

"I made a major mistake when I handed over Tesseract to SHIELD. I should not have done so. I did that when you were six years old. I did not know about Hydra or I would not have done so. I could have taken care of the Hydra problem if I had the Tesseract now, you know. The weapons I could design with it as the energy source are extremely powerful, the arc reactors pale in front of it"

"Well you could enhance yourself with the super soldier serum and take care of them" came Tony's reply

Howard laughed and looked at Tony sadly "If only it were that easy, while I am not too good at socializing I am quite adept at understanding myself. Steve was a good man, who was ready to give up his life to save his people even when he could not save himself. I try to be a good man. There is a difference. It takes effort for me to be good. I am not subconsciously. I weigh lives based on their importance, the majority of the humans are cannon fodder according to me and I have a large ego. Believe me, you do not want to see those attributes magnified."

"Well, you have a point there. You would tell everyone to start calling you God Emperor for all we know."

Tony called out Hank

"Hey, Hank why don't you take the serum?"

Hank looked up from his microscope "My body is damaged to long term exposure of Pym particles, I do not want to know what happens when you add mystical DNA juice to my body. I like being among the living. Also, I don't know if you have noticed, but I am not exactly stable."

Tony laughed while his mind was running a mile a minute. This was the serum that enabled Captain America to stand against Thanos, even if it was barely for a minute. Even against ordinary threats, an enhanced body would go a long way in helping him achieve his goals. He had to play this carefully and close to his chest. The serum was within his grasp.

He puffed his chest and with a fake exaggeration told them

"I volunteer for the serum then as you two are incompetent"

Howard looked apologetic and told Tony "I'm sorry but I would prefer that you not risk being mutated so badly"

Tony shrugged and let it go. His father had Erskine's notes, there were Captain America's blood vials, also he had the serum. He could take a few drops of the samples discreetly and research in his free time. It was not a big deal.

"Ok, just don't expect me to take it lying down. I have so many questions running in my mind but I'll get to them in the end. I don't think you came down here to give me a history lesson."

Howard nodded to Tony's unasked question "I'm going to bait Hydra by dangling some great breakthroughs into the super soldier research. I have a few plans up my sleeve. I think they will pan out. In case they do not. I just wanted you to know what all I created. I want to leave you as powerful and secure in case I do not make it."

"Cmon old man. Why this doom and gloom. Did you think I was gonna let you die?"

Tony pulled out his forcefield generator and held it out to Howard and indicated to the button.

"Press it"

A blue spherical dome sprung out in front of Howard against the generator on his wrist. Tony picked up the hammer and smashed it. The forcefield made a hissing sound as the hammer struck but there was no other effect.

Howard looked impressed and asked Tony about the specs

"I'm using a high energy capacitor right now, so it can only tank a few grenade shots. Might stand up to a single anti-tank rifle shot. It can easily withstand Small arms for a long time. I made it like a high tech wristband. Always wear them."

He fished another one out from the packet and handed it over to Howard "One for mom too"

Then he brought out a suit, built just like Howard liked them. Hank whistled and came closer to look at the suit. He and Howard were examining the suit while Tony proudly said

"You are looking at the first bulletproof suit. I've combined several ideas I had from looking at spider silk, kevlar, and carbon nanotubes and this is the result. They are, wear and tear resistant, odor proof, non-shrinking and the best part is you never need to iron them. "

Howard laughed and thanked Tony for the gifts. Tony shrugged it off saying "Just don't end up doing something dangerous. I would ask to help you out in what you are going to do, but I don't think you will let me"

"Damn right I won't. While I might not be the best father on the block, I am not that bad to put your life in danger to achieve some goal"

Tony acted like somethings were rapidly falling out of his heart rapidly and he was struggling to hold them and prevent them from falling. He looked at Howard and in a fake sad tone told "Why can't I hold all these feels?"

Howard and Hank laughed till they could not anymore and finally wiped their tears off. Hank looked at Tony and told him

"I was hesitant at first. I know how far-reaching SHIELD's power is. It would be like trying to hold back an avalanche with your shovel. If I could use the Ant-Man suit, I might have had a chance, but now in my weakened state when I have a daughter to worry about, I have to be careful not to be on the radar."

Then he held up his finger and walked to his workspace and pulled out a large suitcase from underneath it. He bought it up on the table and opened it.

Tony leaned forward to see what they were and saw two pairs of futuristic guns arranged vertically one above the other and three rows of vials below them. Blue, red and grey.

Tony looked at Hank and asked him, "What do they do?"

"Well, the two guns on the top. They have two slots on either in each of them with a regulator near the pin. They can shrink something to microscopic levels or expand something to macro levels. The red one enlarges. The blue one shrinks."

"Ok, but what does the grey one do"

"One hit instakill. Any organic that comes into contact with it has itself completely jumbled and rearranged at the microscopic level."

"Really on everyone?" hello my dear Thanos killing weapon.

"Well, greater the density of the organic, lesser the chance of it saturating the body and being able to affect it. Also greater the amount of energy running through their bodies, lesser the effect'

Tony watched desperately as his happy plan to one hit kill Thanos went down the drain. This weapon would not work on him. He beat down the Hulk with his bare fists, held Infinity Stones with his bare hands clearing any doubts on his muscle density and energy levels. That shit would not work on him.

Tony turned back to look for what Howard would say but found him quite far away. Howard too had bought out a gun with a transparent handle that seemed to have a sparkling blue fluid in the magazine slot.

Howard looked at the weapon in his hand and said "Steve would get angry if he knew I made weapons like this but desperate times call for desperate measures. While studying the Tesseract I unlocked several secrets, one among them being its main purpose. I believe the Tesseract is a container for some mystical energy source, with the energy primarily preferring to be used for transportation or wormhole generation. How it came to be, I do not know but I was able to replicate a weaker instance of its energy."

Howard shot the gun at the beaker on the table beside him. It flashed blue and vanished. Completely.

"Anything that comes into contact with this is vaporized. The correct term would be it is transported somewhere with it being rent down to its atoms. I theorize it might behave differently when interacting with other sorts of energy in large quantities but for inert materials of any kind. One hit and they are gone. Great for killing enemies. Hydra did it first. It would be very ironic to kill their agents with their weapons."

That was dark and Tony liked it.

Tony looked at Howard and asked "Still I do not think this is how you roped in Hank. Based on his nature he would have preferred to live in his self assigned isolation."

"Love will make even the proudest man kneel. I am the foremost genius in materials sciences. I promised Hank that we would save his wife in turn for his help. It took a while to convince him why I thought his wife was still alive and building the kind of regulator that was required. I ended up using the last bit of Vibranium building a regulator for him but I do not have enough to build one for his wife. It is important to use Vibranium because it absorbs all the quantum energy before it damages the human body extensively. I'm trying to search for Vibranium. Trying to synthesize Vibranium in a lab is close to impossible. It acts as a magical metal and I'm pretty sure it did not occur naturally on earth. I tried to ask Wakanda for it, but they told that all they have is a few kilograms left after the last time they gifted it to the government and they cannot do so again.

Tony's eyebrows raised to his forehead he pulled out his pen from his pocket and laid it out in front of Howard.

Howard had a questioning look on his face and looked back at Tony for an explanation. Tony tapped the pen and told "The metal with which this pen is made up of is Vibranium. King T'Chaka himself gifted it to me."

Howard was rendered speechless. Tony reminded him of the time the king had come over to drop off his son at MIT and presented a challenge in the university. To build a cheap water filtration units for use in developing countries. The second major challenge, building lab grade analysis tools at the cheapest cost for developing countries. Tony had won and T'Chaka privately thanked him for his efforts and gifted Tony this pen along with Hundred Thousand Dollars as prize money. Only later did Tony realize that it was made out of Vibranium.

Hank came over quickly and estimated that it was short a few grams of the minimum quantity they required. Vibranium was essential to balance absorb quantum energy before it ran havoc on their bodies when they went sub-atomic. Howard and Hank started animatedly discussing how they thought that Vibranium was not rare as they were led to believe if the king could simply gift it away in small competitions.

Tony just sat back and listened to it all. Howard then walked away with Pym to the other part of the lab leaving Tony alone with these thoughts. They were going to test out the forcefield generator and the bulletproof suits.

Tony started sketching out the chemical structure of the Tungsten Titanium alloy he would suggest Howard use in his car.

Suddenly he had a brilliant idea and he ran off to where they were testing the forcefield.

He gestured for them to stop and asked for the generator. Once he received the generator, he removed the casing and proceeded to remove the chip-sized capacitor, and plugged the generator to the arc reactor and flipped it on. Tony thought for a moment he had overloaded the generator but then it activated making everyone in the room squint. Tony whistled when he looked at the forcefield.

Where the shield was pale blue before, it was now a dark blue shade that glowed intensely. Tony nodded and shut off the generator and threw it back to his father.

Howard came over to Tony and thumped him on his back

"Since you have all these gifts for me. I have a couple for you too."

Howard walked back to cold storage and pressed his password. From all the vials he picked the greenish blue vial and handed it over to Tony.

"While I could not make the super soldier serum without the side effects, I could create a milder and specific version. This according to my tests, should make the delay between your thought process and body reactions to be nearly zero. Meaning a perfect synchronization between body and mind. It brings one to the peak of their genetic potential, making them the best possible version they could be."

Howard exhaled heavily and said "It's up to you whether you want to take it now or keep it for a later date. I just want you as safe as possible."

Tony fought off his impulse to laugh. He was pretty sure laughing like a megalomaniac on getting a free power-up would ring alarm bells in Howard's mind.

Tony just firmly nodded and muttered "Thanks for caring about me"

Howard just waved him off "Ok, and I've given Obadiah the money you wanted for your startup. Never let it be said that I am not a man of my word. Though Obadiah had several ideas he wanted to discuss with you, so remember to talk with him, before you do your thing"

Howard removed a pen drive from his pocket and threw it at Tony, who looked it over. He looked back at Howard and asked him "What is in it?"

Howard had both his hands in his pockets and was rocking back and forth between his heels and toes, he looked quietly above.

"My life's work" he breathed deeply and continued " I would not have given you this if you were like me when I was young. A carefree womanizer with no thoughts about the future. If I hadn't found you acting responsibly, I would have burned the most sensitive of my research off to prevent it from coming in the hands of the wrong people."

"Damn that's cold"

"It's the truth, while you might be my son, I would not give you my life's work if I thought you were not deserving of it. Now that you have the information I will destroy all physical copies of my notes. JARVIS has scanned most of my notes and he will be there to help me out if I need to reference something later on."

"Thanks for everything dad. I just remembered that I wanted to ask you if you had any ideas regarding a replacement for palladium in the miniaturized arc reactor."

Howard just nodded "I'll have JARVIS pass on the atomic structure of the element I have in mind. Although I don't think it's possible to synthesize. The technology for it does not exist"

"Then it's a good thing I am great at creating new technological precedents then" Tony smugly replied and started walking away to the elevator.

Once Tony left, Hank came closer to Howard and asked

"Don't think you will make it?"

"No, my death warrant was signed a long time ago. I'm one of the biggest threats to Hydra. All this time they were postponing my death for the sheer benefits I provided. Half the world security council is Hydra according to my estimates, Pierce too."

Hank picked up the empty beaker on the desk and threw it on the wall in anger

"Fuck, there is no coming out alive for us, from this mess!"

Howard looked at him like he was crazy "There is no us. You will go home to your daughter, You find your wife. Save her. Go home, Hank. Tony is a genius beyond either of us and if he is half as capable as I assume he is, I do not think anyone in the universe will be capable of standing in his way.

He moved his fingers across his hair tiredly " This is not your war to fight. Leave it to me. If I succeed, Great. If not, I trust Tony to take care of it. I will have left him with a trillion dollar empire, knowledge to stand among the greatest of mankind. He will not want for anything and knowing him, I pity those who stand in his way."

Hank just nodded and walked away. He knew better than to try to sway Howard's mind. He was stubborn to a fault.

Tony slowly walked into his labs his mind racing. His father was ready to take the fight to Hydra. Tony loved his parents but he could not shelter them to save them from the world. They were headstrong people who would face adversity head on and not flinch. The best he could do was make sure they were protected to the best of his ability. The bulletproof suits and forcefield projector were a start. He would have to redesign an extremely secure car for them too. He didn't want to watch them dying like in canon.

He slowly went over to his workbench and kept the vial on his work desk

"JARVIS, use our tools to analyze this vial and let me know about it"

Tony ran some experiments to understand how the vial interacted with the body. While he trusted his father, he hated not knowing what something did. Molecular biochemistry was not his field but he would become an expert in it, he always loved a challenge.

The hours went by as he was working in the lab and JARVIS alerted him that he had half an hour left before his scheduled meeting with Obadiah.

Tony got dressed and drove over to the penthouse Obadiah owned. He went in to watch the old fart wearing a suit and relaxing with a cup of whiskey, floating on an inflatable in his swimming pool. He looked at him in amusement before calling out,

"Hey Obi"

Obadiah waved back and slowly paddled away to reach the edge where Tony stood. He went over to pick up the bottle from its stand and poured a generous measure of whiskey and passed it over to Tony. Tony raised his glass as a token gesture and took a sip.

Obadiah slowly rotated his glass and stared into his drink. Tony cleared his throat and Obadiah looked up

"Tony, I will transfer the money that Howard set aside for you. A billion from his accounts. I had a long discussion with Howard and Maria and we decided that the best way would be to assign the patents, and you giving manufacturing rights to your company. Your company is a startup with a lack of infrastructure that will lease the manufacturing rights to Stark Industries for the foreseeable future. This way we keep the money in your pockets."

"Why this extensive smokescreen?"

"We could directly manufacture from Stark industries, and while the company might make money, the profits we earn will be diluted. Me, Howard and Maria collectively own fifty-five percent of the total SI stock. The rest forty-five is held by several individuals and banks. I'd prefer to keep the money in either of our hands. This way we can let your startup get a majority of the profit while keeping a slim profit margin for Stark industries. The board might throw a fit but they cannot do anything as we hold the majority and the voting stock too"

Tony nodded and looked at Obadiah "Thank you for helping me out and being there for me. It means a lot to me"

Obadiah laughed and waved off Tony "No problem, you are my kid as much as you are Howard's. I should thank you for helping me out."

On seeing Tony raise a questioning eyebrow he looked down and was silent for quite a long time. Tony had learned to keep his silence because such moments were profound and few, he feared if he talked he would never get to know the answer.

"I am a highly materialistic man Tony. Have you ever wondered why I would spend my time on a little kid? trying to pass on my skills and knowledge"

"I wouldn't know"

"I saw myself in you, Tony. Saw a kid who was trying to make sense of the world around him. I was an orphan and I saw the dark underbelly of his world long before I hit my teens." he rubbed his forehead. "Somethings in life, leave a mark on you. When I struggled to make enough money to fill my stomach, I had vowed to be a great and good man. Great enough to never know hunger. I was street smart. I was good at numbers. After a journey full of struggle I could stand proud and say I made it. I was the right-hand man of Stark. America's boy. I had thought I made it."

He then looked at his hands with guilt-ridden eyes.

"Howard despite being an intelligent man is oblivious to the dark underbelly of the world. When we were in our 30's right in our prime. He held extravagant parties, throwing money around like candy. He was in the limelight, he developed weapons, kept America safe according to the people and they loved him for it.

He then shocked Tony by throwing his glass angrily "While I had to plunge my hands in the filth and make dirty deals with politicians and bankers. What was the need for weapons if there were no wars. So I buried my conscience deep down and went on to do my part. I had to deal with weapons under the table so that America could keep its war going forward. Dead soldiers make great martyrs. And so it went on. Howard could be spotless for I did all his dirty work so that the company made money. Where do you think he got all the money for his expensive side projects. It's the money I bartered with the blood of humanity. And I hated him for what I had become."

"Then you came along. And it reminded me of myself, you were the best parts of both Maria and Howard, idealistic and so full of hope. So I trained you. If you had turned out like Howard was in his youth I would have hated you for it but you didn't and here we are today, actually gradually transitioning from a war profiteering company into something more, to provide value and to uplift humanity. Something I dearly wanted to do since I was a teen."

"So that is why I thanked you, you saved me from myself. If I do make deals behind closed doors now, It would be to benefit people eventually instead of bartering in lives. I can now look at the man in the mirror and not feel ashamed."

Tony suddenly understood Obadiah's position. An idealistic man who spent so much time doing what was required that he had forgotten why he ever started in the first place. Years being considered as Howard's errand boy, dealing with the board, ensuring the company never dips into the red, making deals with the military. It made him hateful of what he had turned into and it poisoned him gradually against the Stark family. He could see why Stane had tried to kill Tony in canon. He was a picture-perfect replica of Howard in his youth. Tony drowning himself in alcohol and partying away his life, wasting his intellect after his parent's death. Obadiah would have spent all the time doing damage control. First the father, now the son. It would have twisted the man into something hateful and vengeful, always in the shadow of the Stark family, never acknowledged for what he was doing, selling death weighing down on his soul all these years.

In the end, all he knew would be selling weapons after decades of doing it and with no light at the end of the tunnel, he would try to usurp Stark Industries.

Tony tapped Obadiah on his shoulder "You are a good man Obi, you tried and changed. That's what matters in the end."

Obadiah silently nodded and leaned back on his chair looking at the moon distantly.

Tony sat for a long while along with him. It was good to have someone in his corner, someone he could depend on if things went south.

Obadiah took a deep breath and turned back to Tony. "I don't have to ask you to keep this from Howard, do I?. I would prefer to avoid bad blood between us."

Tony used his fingers to zip his mouth closed and crossed his heart twice. "Don't worry. I've got your back like you got mine" and stood up.

"I'll leave now Obadiah, I've got some other designs. I will forward a few of them using JARVIS. Let me know after you have seen them ." he waved off and started leaving.

"Goodbye Tony"


	7. Howard Stark Interlude 2

**Howard Stark Interlude**

Howard picked up the shot and threw back his head drinking it quickly. He grimaced as it burned his throat. Five months had passed since he had given his research to Tony. The Stark Expo was tomorrow. A lot had happened in the past few months.

The media was up in the frenzy and was hailing Tony as the foremost genius of all times. His fame skyrocketing like never before. Between his inroads into computing technologies and the various other fields, he was completely swamped by offers and licensing deals from various companies. His plastic synthesizer was hailed as a major breakthrough in developing countries and as for his catalytic converter, the automobile industry all but hailed him as their hero.

Tony was a massive celebrity in the poor countries for the generous donations of his filtration units. It stymied various water-borne diseases, as the poor had access to clean water and the pollution in the water bodies could be cleaned by the technology that he licensed to the various governments.

Tony handled all the praise with grace and humbleness, keeping the focus on how he could help the people, being the immaculate gentleman. The public all but ate from the palm of his hand.

Howard was proud of his son Tony. But despite all this, he feared his son. People did not catch it but he did, there were moments where his face turned so utterly cold and calculative that it chilled him to the core, seeing such an expression. After a long, while he understood, Tony did not have the same moral scale as most people did. He tried to be good because he thought it was the right thing to do and not because he felt it intrinsically. He did not feel for most people and put up a facade. That wasn't to say all his efforts were a front for a more sinister agenda but rather he seemed to hold the same importance for people mentally like one would while observing a bird. While in front of him, he would take notice, but once out of his view they were insignificant in his grand view. If someone killed the bird, he would be pissed. Not because the bird was killed but because it disturbed the harmony he intended. Even as a child there was no desire for acknowledgment, only a burning desire to consume whatever knowledge he came across.

He did not know what to do, so he taught him all he knew, told him about Steve many a time to influence his thought process. Tony took it all quietly in. He feared for his son. But more than that he feared for those who earned his ire. There were moments when he could see Tony restraining himself when angry or irritated, the small twitches in his hand while he looked at vital areas that could kill a man. He wondered where those impulses originated from. All he had were questions and no way of knowing the answers.

He loved his son too much so he buried all these doubts and questions deep down. He would judge his son by what he was trying to do rather than what he actually was. It was all he could do as a father. After all for all his faults, Tony was still his son.

He walked over staggering, to his bedroom and removed his shoes and dropped on his bed. Maria was fast asleep beside him. She was a good woman. Far better than he deserved. He kissed her forehead and fell asleep beside her. There was work to do tomorrow.

The morning saw him walking down the ramp with Tony, the crowd shouting and cheering his and Tony's name. Their numbers extending as far as the eye could see, it was the opening ceremony of the Stark Expo. He did a small jig and walked to the front of the stage. Tony slightly behind him. The crowd quieted down as he raised his hand.

"Since times immemorial mankind has looked to the stars, wondering what lay beyond our horizons. It is an inbuilt desire in us all to be greater, to know more about the secrets of the universe. I present to you the greatest breakthrough of the century" he pulled out the Mark II reactor from his pocket and held it out for the crowd to see.

They watched with bated breaths for his explanation

He dramatically intoned. "It's the power of a nuclear reactor in the palm of my hand only better, and without any drawbacks"

The crowd went wild and he clicked the button on his wristwatch to start up the hologram animations showing the various applications of this breakthrough while he seamlessly explained it all to them.

Stark industries would spearhead clean energy, while computing technologies would be Tony's domain to handle in partnership with Stark Industries and a few other tech companies.

He gestured for Tony to come forward. Tony stepped up to an overwhelming ovation. Howard laughed. Tony had exceeded his own fame at this point. There were shouts of "Marry me Tony" among the crowd. Tony good-naturedly weathered it all. And started discussing what he planned to offer.

He bought out several of his finished projects and put them on display and chose volunteers to operate them. The world watched live as Tony effortlessly spoke of his dream for a utopian future, where hunger and poverty only belonged in history books, of clear skies and clean rains. The crowds hung onto his every word. It was a proud moment for Howard. There were battles to be fought tomorrow, plans to be made but for today he would look at his son and be proud. Proud of the legacy he would leave behind.

He met up with Obadiah once his part on the stage was done. Obadiah was ecstatic with joy.

"I'm telling you, Howard, we will be the first ever company with a trillion dollars in revenue, forget the valuation. It will be sky high"

And then a nostalgic expression with a sad smile came across Obadiah's face. "We have come a long way, Howard."

Howard shrugged and started walking beside Obadiah. Now that he had laid the stepping stone for his son's success. It was time to take the fight to Hydra. He had hinted that he was close to a breakthrough in the super soldier serum that he was developing secretly and tempted the World Security Council . It was a dangerous gamble but an essential one to know where the loyalties lay. He laid the trap, now he waited to see who would attempt to steal his research. They wouldn't kill him because he knew the quite a few secrets of the serum according to them, but they would try to steal and it was essential that he caught them red handed. It was time to settle old debts and clear up after his mistakes.


	8. Relapse

**Relapse **

Two months had passed since the Stark Expo, and Stark industries had never been so profitable.

A trillion dollar valuation due to their forays into clean energy, partnerships with Tony's company to manufacture electronics and a wide assortment of other technologies. The press went wild covering the father-son duo for all their creations.

A few months passed by as Tony worked on his secret projects. He successfully cracked how the derived serum worked. He renamed it the Stark serum. The serum supercharged the body's cells and let the cells channel dimensional energy, though not on the levels of the super soldier serum. The Stark serum reinforced the connections between the brain and the body and prevented any lag between thoughts and actions. It granted a level of control over his body that was all but supernatural according to him. While he could calculate trajectories and plan different courses of actions in his mind before, he still made mistakes due to lack of muscle memory, but right now, the Stark serum gave him absolute control in his actions.

After a few tests he concluded that while he was within the norm for a few things, he was better in a few others. Being successfully able to run at 30 miles an hour at top speed, Supercharged reflexes and reinforced body to brain connections were amazing. He could repeatedly shoot the same spot while in motion. Throw a ball blindfolded into the air behind his back and shoot it based on the sound it made while falling on the floor. He had thought that it would take him a long time to gain back his skills and fitness from his past life but the serum gave him a shortcut, the laugh that bubbled from his mouth was definitely not evil despite what JARVIS repeatedly told.

He had designed several machines for his advanced training. A smart punch bag that generated white circles on its surface as targets and changed the targets rapidly on being hit, to some other location. It trained his speed and reflexes. Tony was relaxed. Things were going his way.

Howard had told he had given a defective super soldier serum from one of his failed experiments to SHIELD. Howard had made a list of people with suspected loyalty to Hydra and shared it with Tony. It was a matter of isolating and eliminating those threats now. Howard had stashed all his secretive projects in a container and asked Hank to size them down using Pym particles. He then gave the container to Tony for safekeeping, just in case someone infiltrated the house or in the case of his death.

There were several attempts at espionage by a few rival countries and spy organizations from different countries but they were all rebuffed successfully. Tony had spared no expense on security.

Howard had Tony attend the board meeting along with Obadiah and Maria, despite Tony not being a majority shareholder. The board looked like they swallowed a sour lemon but they could not say anything. After all the company's success was engineered by Starks in its entirety according to them.

After the meeting was over, Obi went off to his penthouse citing an early night and declined an offer to join them for dinner. Howard, Maria, and Tony got in the car. Tony got in the driver's seat, while Howard sat beside him. Maria comfortably stretched out in the backseat. Tony kept one eye on the road while his mind was running a mile a minute.

There were several black cars following them. They had left the armored limo at their house. Howard had picked this sports car for tonight, it lacked the weaponry he kept as contingencies. Tony subtly nudged Howard who looked at him. Tony slowly pointed at the rearview mirror with his eyes, which led to Howard looking back at several cars following them from a distance.

Tony slowly tapped his earbud letting his connection to JARVIS come back alive

"JARVIS, hack into the city grid and I want the lights green from here to our house. We have inbound hostiles. Contact the police and let Obadiah know. Bring out the weapons and keep them hot and ready. I'll be there at the house in five minutes."

"Affirmative sir, good luck. I'm notifying the police department as we speak"

Tony slowly started accelerating the car speeding through the streets, swerving rapidly around cars. Despite losing the cars that were on his trail, some more were ready waiting in ambush for them, chasing him as he drove to reach his home quickly. He was speeding past a signal when a hook shot out and tried to embed itself into his car but barely made a slight dent. Tony smirked.

While this car was not really revolutionary, he never skimped on his family security, he had upgraded its mainframe with a Titanium Tungsten alloy to strengthen its structural integrity. A mere hook could not penetrate it. He wondered why they were operating so openly.

"Tony" shouted Howard and he barely looked at his left to see several cars ahead of them. Their back seats lowered, they were sporting anti-tank weaponry that could seriously damage this car. No conventional weaponry could, but the weapons they were holding could. Howard himself had designed them as a backup in case the cold war escalated into something more.

Time all but slowed down as Tony tried to quickly rotate the car back 180 degrees, but before that, the armed men shot their weapons. Tony tried to swerve the vehicle into safety but failed as the whole frontal part was damaged and the car halted to a stop near the pavement. He quickly got out of the car motioning Howard to get out from his side, Maria came out from the backseat and quickly vomited. Her weak constitution not supporting his rapid escapades. The car covered them from the hostiles dressed in black arrayed around them, Tony quickly bought out his arc reactor while Howard bought out his guns that he had hidden from his holsters.

Howard looked over the window to see what was happening on the other side and saw them loading his Stark developed bunker buster and aiming for the car. He quickly shouted "no" startling Tony and his wife and quickly looked to the forcefield projector in his hand.

He looked at Maria and then Tony quickly, his heart tearing up all along. He could only save one of them. He only had seconds before they hit the explosives but for him, it was an agonizing eternity. Should he save the love of his life, his wife, who stood by him on every step or should he save his son, his legacy, the best bet earth had for a brighter future?

With guilt ridden heart he rapidly made his decision and threw his guns to Tony's feet in a second, removed his forcefield bracelet, snatched the arc reactor out of Tony's hand and quickly attached it to the bracelet as a power source, grabbed Tony's hand and initiated the forcefield. Tony could only look on dumbfounded at his father actions before he looked over Howard's shoulder to see the hostiles aiming to take a shot at the car. He suddenly came to the horrific realization that his father had doomed himself and Maria just so Tony's could be safe. Tony looked back at Howard with a betrayed expression to which Howard looked back with a wistful smile.

The moment stretched an eternity for Tony. His heart broke at the finality of what was about to occur, so many things left unsaid. The explosive hit Tony's car and crushed the car's side. Howard was trapped between the car and the forcefield, his protective suit weathering the blow for him a bit, but he was heavily bleeding from his forehead, blood dripping down his forehead, staining the ground rapidly.

Tony quickly shut off his forcefield to hold Howard and see if he could provide any medical assistance. Howard was on his knees, leant forward on Tony, breathing deeply. Tony on his knees holding him desperately, Howard pulled Tony close to him and with great effort spoke "What is, and always has been my greatest creation, is you, Tony". Howard shuddered deeply and made struggled looked to the side where Maria's body lay, her head twisted at an unnatural angle. Tony looked to where Howard was looking at and teared up. Howard with his voice filled with anger shook Tony with what feeble strength he had to make Tony focus on him. "Make them pay Tony" he swallowed and tried to locate what little strength he had left, to utter his next words "for Maria" and crashed forward on Tony's arms. Tony could hear the murmuring of the men over the radio.

But he paid no attention to it. All his personal fears had come to pass due to his negligence. He should have known better than to let his guard down. If they had gone in the limousine, they would be secure and safe but of all the days he was attacked, it had to be today. He looked at his bloodstained hands crying, tears falling on his palms. Was he cursed to this life, did life intent to have no mercy on him. To pluck him from right from his death infested life, to be born into this family, making him fall in love with them, only to rip them away in the end, so painfully in front of his eyes. He tried, he tried so hard to be a good man, only for life to spit back his effort on his face. He was cursed, doomed to tragedy in both lifetimes with no escape.

Rage bubbled in his heart at seeing his parents killed in such an ignominious way. Fine, if this is what was in store for him, he would rise up to it. He closed his eyes for a moment to bury everything deep down, to bring to the surface what he hid deep down all these years. Everything stilled for a moment for him, with a weary heart he picked Howard's vaporizer guns. He would avenge them. For Howard last wish. For Maria, a loving mother, a life cut short before its time. For Howard.

He pressed his finger on his earpiece and whispered to JARVIS "Cut the video feeds from my location and put them on loop." JARVIS interjected softly "Sir.."

"Just do it" replied Tony harshly

One of the assailants came near the edge of the car only to find Tony's gun aimed right at his head. Tony shot him right in the eye and watched him vaporize, his weapons falling on the ground.

Tony stood from his place to look at the men arrayed around him looking at him wide-eyed. They had relaxed assuming there were no survivors only to find one of their own killed. They cursed and quickly removed their guns from their holsters only for Tony to start shooting rapidly without a single break. Each shot precisely hitting their guns, grenades vaporizing them, leaving them with no weapons. Tony further shot the tires of the cars to let none escape and dropped his guns. The armed hostiles could only blink in shock over encountering this and watched as Tony picked up the combat knife of the hostile he had just killed.

Tony's hands were trembling. He looked at the men in front of him "I loved them more than the entire world and you just had to take them away from me. Didn't you?"

Everyone took a step back at the cold anger displayed in his eyes. "You don't deserve a quick death. I will kill you all with my own two hands" and started walking towards them

They quickly got over the sudden shock, taking courage in their numbers and rushed Tony in groups.

Tony dodged the haymaker sent by the first man, quickly reversing the knife in his hand, cutting the tendons in his right arm, then bending down to swiftly puncture both his lungs, letting the man fall down, suffocating in his own blood, waiting to die.

The man on his right came forward with a heel kick only for Tony to deftly sidestep and knife him right behind the knee cap, letting the momentum carry the man forward, caught his head, and twisted it, breaking the neck with a resounding crack and let the man fall down limp.

The sheer brutality in Tony's execution made them waver for a second before their training kicked in, and in synchronization two of them came from opposite sides. Tony quickly removed the pen from his side pocket, and blocked the kick of his left assailant with his forearm, while catching the punch of the man on the right and pulling him in, all the while twisting his arm. Tony kicked the man on his left at the right knee joint with his left toe making him fall down in pain, then stabbed the man on his right in a swift motion, burying the pen he held in his hand, right in the soft spot, on the side of his neck, where the carotid artery was located.

Blood started spurting out quickly as the man quickly backed up applying pressure to prevent blood loss but failing. Tony pushed him away and attacked the kneeling man on his left with a knee strike with tremendous force driving the broken pieces of his nose right into his brain.

The remaining men proved to be of no challenge as he dispatched each of them mercilessly, each of their deaths more brutal than the previous ones, till only one man remained with both his legs and arms broken on the ground.

Tony leant down pressing his knee on the man's broken arm. The man yelled out in pain shouting obscenities at Tony. Tony slapped him and looked at him with remorseless cold eyes

"I killed all twenty of you with my bare hands. Your threats have no meaning. You will die regardless of what happens. I will grant you a painless death if you just tell me who sent you. If not, I have a really creative mind that you will experience first hand."

The man spat out blood and looked at Tony with a harsh glare "You think you have won. We are many. For each one of us killed. Two more will take our place. Hail Hydra" and tried to swallow his cyanide pill only for him to spit it out as Tony gave a palm strike at his throat.

"Did you really think I would let you deny me my revenge" he then pulled out the man's knife and drove it down quickly slightly below his heart.

Tony took a deep breath and looked around him and back at the man struggling in intense pain

In a tone like he was discussing the weather he continued. "I know it hurts. That burning sensation you feel, it's your cavity being filled by blood. That guy on your right, I punctured his left ventricle letting him bleed dry. He died in shock, well, organ failure to be exact. Took him two seconds longer than I calculated. I must be getting rusty. Anyway, just letting you know that in two minutes you will lose consciousness, brain dead in another two." He gestured around him " I didn't want to do this you know. I was a dutiful son to my parents. They believed in justice. I wanted to support them and let them do things the right way. I wondered at moments if it would be better to attack your cult with overwhelming firepower. Hey, are you listening?"

Tony slapped the man who was beginning to look groggy and continued

"I assumed you would all play the shadow game and not attack my family so brazenly but you did, and in doing so gave birth to the greatest enemy of Hydra. I will rain torment on your entire cult in ways you cannot comprehend. Howard and Maria were what kept me restrained, made me believe that I could make an effort to do things the right way." He paused and swallowed "This time around at least" Tony looked at his hands breathing heavily, tears falling from his eyes.

He then patted the dying man on his head with blood-soaked hands."Rest assured, I will be sending your comrades as soon as it is convenient for me." and stood up and started walking back with a heavy heart to where his parents lay.

He heard sirens in the distance while he walked back. He went to where Maria lay and knelt down beside her with tears flowing down his eyes. He righted her neck and lifted her, he set her beside his father who was leaning with his back against his car. They looked so peaceful in death. He failed them thinking his efforts were adequate. With trembling hands, he slowly held their hand in his and looked at them, and cried his heart out. There would be more nagging from his mother to eat his food, no more kisses. Howard no longer there to accompany him in his experiments, to look at him proudly. To give solace that someone loved him unconditionally. all the good things would be memories. His self-loathing reaching new heights due to his self deemed ineptitude.

His world had fallen apart right in front of him. For now, he would let himself grieve, taking revenge could wait for a while. He was patient, he would let the rage fester and age like a fine wine, making the moment he took his revenge all the more delicious. He would be swift and decisive in his reckoning. He would become the Merchant of Death for his enemies. For Howard's wish. For Maria.

**Thank you all for taking the time to read this story. I've tried to edit the story properly this time to prevent catastrophes like before. Please leave your feedback on the story and let me know. I would also be willing to sell my second born if someone could become my editor. I suck at editing. Took me twice as long to edit than it took me to write. **

**Also please do not forget to vote in the poll so that I can get to know my reader's wishes, I have already stretched the plot thin without making a reference to the size of the MCU.**


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